RILEY'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

Riley turned the big 01 on october 22! In the morning i got her out of her crib and took her to our room, like usual. She likes to watch us get ready and pull everything out of the closet and bathroom cupboards. I was holding and talking to josh telling him all the things i needed to get done that day, before and after work, to be ready for riley's family party this saturday when i suddenly remembered it was our little sweet heart's birthday!!! so i stopped mid sentance and started singing happy birthday to her and josh joined in. haha. Riley liked that we were singing to her but had no idea why! The day was pretty normal. I ran errands most of the day, babysat and then had to go to church for activity days...FINALLY when i got home i made riley and i some dinner and soon after josh got home from work. We dropped everything and opened some presents!!!

(i'm not very good at this yet. the pictures are kind of out of order!)

This is riley's main present from me...a family album of our 17 (!) immediate family members, all laminated so she can bend, chew and drool all over them. It is going to be great for church etc. Very quiet and she can learn all of the people who love her!

Sorry, again. Out of order. I got Riley alphabet magnets for the fridge, twist up crayons(in hopes she doesn't eat them too much) a coloring book, and bubbles.
Here she is loving to hold and tote around the heavy bag.

Riding her present...Josh got her a "little people" school bus. It makes some cute noises. i'm sure annoying in the future! Riley LOVES it. She really needed some bigger kid toys. she is so sick of teethers and rattles.

Opening her little people "rumble dump truck" from daddy.

The hat- ...riley is a member of the toys r us birthday club and when we went she got a balloon and this hat. she puts it on all the time :)

Overall it was a pretty normal day. She is having a family birthday party on saturday to really celebrate; balloons, streamers, cake in her face, the whole nine! We love our daughter. she is amazing and so happy. we couldn't ask for aything more. These past 12 months have been nothing but the best of times. She has brought so much joy into our home, words just can't describe our love for her...we'd do anything for our daughter :)

Riley, Riley, Riley...

Riley is so much fun to have around...I just wanted to post a few things from the past week or so that i have captured on camera...

Riley helping me clean our sliding glass doors. She does a great job, don't you think?!

I made sure to put the "tupperware drawer" low (trick from my mom) so that she always has some fun stuff to play with in the kitchen. She learned how to crawl in and gets mad when there is no room for her, haha.
This picture didn't quite capture what i wanted to show, but if you look closely she has two bruises on her head, one above her eye and one smack dab in the middle of her forehead. Now that she can walk, she thinks she is sooo big! Well, she walks everywhere now and falls everywhere too! She hit the corner of a table right above her eye. The bruise in the middle seems to be permanet though. Everytime it's just about to fade out completely, BOOM, she falls again and gets another right in the same place. That particular one was from a ball that her uncle rolled to her and it went between her legs so, naturally, she looked between her legs to try to get it and fell on her head!

Riley's first visit to the pumpkin patch - our camera is slowing coming to it's death, so most of the pictures were blurry...When we got to the pumpkin patch it was closed! Luckily a few of the owners were still there and were kind enough to turn the lights on for us, we had the place to ourself which was nice...Riley was ccrraannkky because it was so late, so most of the pictures we have of her she is crying or mad.
She liked to try to hold the little pumpkins, but they were all too heavy.

Josh and i are so proud of her first "Real" word... "wow", she says it so many different ways...in this video is the regualr "wow" but sometimes, she looks straight up and whispers a wow, and other times she walks around saying "wowowowow"

Lets get started

I figured i should start off just letting you know where everyone is at in life! Josh is working full time, and does financial advising on the side-let us know if you guys need anything! He goes to the gym most mornings before work to play raquet ball with his buddies and we hang out when he gets home from work. He likes to catch up on his time with Riley. I am currently a stay at home mom and LOVING it! I do baby sit almost always 5 days a week to earn a little money to pay off my student loans. It's fun and gives Riley someone to play with besides boring ol' me :) I try to run most days still, but i'm getting lazy again. Riley...what isn't she doing?! She learned how to walk a few weeks ago and is getting better and faster every day. She is such a goof ball. She loves to hold anything that has a handle on her arm like a purse. OH and the best...When you say "hi" she'll wave to you but when you say "hello" she will put whatever is in her hand to her ear like a phone! She says mamamma and dadadad..i still don't think she knows mamama refers just to me, she says it when she wants somehting, when she's tired or when she is just babbling...she does know dadadad is just josh though. She said her first real word....it's WOW...how cute huh? whenever she sees something that amazes her (food, a picture, ect) she says "wooow" with real round lips/mouth. and she also says "oh oh oh" when you ask her what a doggy says (she hasn't got down the "woof") I will try to get each of these on tape soon so i can post them for you :)

Riley Figured out how to crawl into our washer!

Hello All

I'm so excited to start this blog...i know it looks cruddy right now, but i'm learning! I love so much to read all of your blogs, to see how things with your families are going, that I thought I'd start my own so our friends and family can stay involved and up to date when life gets in the way otherwise :)